Thursday, April 5, 2012

We've been living in our house for more than a year now and we still have tons of photos to display. In addition, I have cookbooks I am constantly having to dig out of the pantry, where they were kept.

I found these very easy plans for small shelves from Knock Off Furniture. These are the famous $10 shelves. Here they are in the family room:

And in the kitchen:

It looks nice and tidy now. These shelves were very easy to make. The fronts were tacked on with my nail gun.

Friday, March 30, 2012

I had fun today figuring out how to use the brad nailer and air compressor. I remember when my dad bought his air compressor many years ago--it was a few hundred bucks. I got a refurbished one for about $40 or so on Amazon.com. Since we have Amazon Prime, two-day shipping was free!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

I'm using my hiatus from the work force to take care of projects around the house. Things I've been wanting to do for a while and haven't had time. Here's the first project, a pair of benches made from a tutorial I found on Pinterest, which was a knock off of a Ballard Designs upholstered bench.

We needed more seating in our family room, and I wanted a couple of benches that would fit neatly into specific spaces. Here's what I came up with:

I purchased legs from the Home Depot as well as Lowe's. They are pine and were about $10 each. I stained them with Minwax Jacobean and sealed them with a satin polyurethane:

The blogger who inspired me to do this used MDF for the seat, which I don't see how that would hold an adult. I used 3/4" plywood instead. One large sheet was enough for a couple of benches, plus plenty of leftovers.

Another project I am planning is this console:

This will go in the foyer by the front door. The space is empty and we just need something there. I'll be grouping it with a mirror from the old house and some kind of non-breakable accessories (since we have both a cat and a toddler).

This is from the July 2011 issue of Burda Style magazine. Burda offers many of these patterns on line to download for a price, which is what I did. The download includes the dress and top version. I'll be making the top next.

I got the mesh fabric from eBay. It's from the Italian boutique clothing maker Save the Queen.

I made several pairs of these yesterday for Charlotte. I'm not 100% happy with the result--they are too big in the hips and I used the size two for the hips, size 3 for the length. Perhaps they will fit a bit better when she grows into them. The fabric is super cute though.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Here is most of my fabric and pattern stash. I think I have between 200 and 300 yards of fabric, and roughly 450 patterns, not including the pattern magazines and the 27 patterns I just ordered from Patterns of the Past.

Another entry to the fabric stash contest. I need to wear this a couple of times to see if I still like it as I had originally planned to wear it--over a white cami. I'm wondering if it needs a few rows of shirring along the hem to give it more shape.